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Global political scenario and relations are undergoing massive change with the United States under Donald Trump losing ground and Russia emerging fast as the new protector of global peace.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

After spending more than two months in custody, the Supreme Court on October 22 granted bail to Shri P. Chidambaram, former Union Home Minister, and Senior Advocate, in the INX Media case. The Court was hearing an appeal from the Delhi High Court order dated 30.09.2019 dismissing Mr. Chidambaram’s bail application, though the High Court found that there was no evidence of ‘flight risk’ or ‘tampering of evidence’. Before we analyse the Supreme Court’s bail order, it is important to understand the facts of this bizarre case, where a person accused of murdering her daughter, i.e., Indrani Mukerjee is ‘pardoned’ by CBI, and on the basis of her statement, he was arrested on 21st August, 2019.

The next three months are going to be crucial from the point of view of individual privacy. The government has informed the Supreme Court, hearing a plea by social media giants Facebook and Whatsapp for transfer of several cases involving decryption of private messages of their users from high courts to the apex court, that the rules governing the intermediaries would be finalised before the next hearing, which is scheduled for next January 15.

India’s banking sector is in deep crisis. There are no two opinions that it was on verge of collapse. The union government’s effort to pull it out of the crisis confirms it further. Difference relate to who is blaming whom for the crisis. The Modi fan club naturally blames the previous regimes as it cannot countenance even hint that the NaMo regime can ever err on any count. But such belief can be easily discarded or ignored as it is not based on comprehension of economics. But no one can dismiss the union finance minister Nirmala Seetharaman shoving the blame on the style of politics of the past.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Food availability is uncertain for 60 percent of the people. Conditions are bleak, and bleaker still from shortages, rampant political corruption, and not much to show after two years of regular street protests. In the year prior to September, security forces killed 77 people. That month protests accentuated and by Oct. 7 they had killed at least 17 more.

Sri Lanka is going to elect a new president on November 16. The present incumbent, Sirisena Maithripala, is not contesting. Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Brother Nandasena Gotabaya, better known as Gotabaya, is contesting this time. Though there are as many as 35 contestants in the fray but the main contest will lie between Gotabaya of the Sri Lanka Podujena Peramuna (SLPP) and Sajith Premadasa of the United National Party (UNP),with the scales tilting in favour of the former.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Low polling in all the five assembly constituencies which went to the polls on Monday due to heavy rains, has caused concern to all the three fronts, particularly the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In Assam, there is a major disillusionment among some people over the perceived failure of the much publicised National Register of Citizens (NRC) updating exercise. Far from identifying and isolating at least 5 million Bangladeshi illegal migrants if not more, the tangible outcome of the NRC operation has left its lip-smacking Assam-based backers shell-shocked. Apparently, there are only around 19,00,000 people whose ID documents are not in order. Moreover, this number will drop further once the ongoing appellate proceedings are over. Talk about mass hysteria making mountains out of molehills!

Ayodhya is getting ready to face the impact of the Supreme Court judgment on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmaboomi title suit by next month. The verdict will, hopefully, put a lid to the dispute between the two communities on the right of ownership. A violent mob of karsevaks had pulled down the Babri masjid adjacent to the Ram temple in Ayodhya on 6 December 1992, which has affected the communal fabric of the country. The Hindu side -represented by seven parties over the disputed site have argued in the apex court that there was a temple dedicated to the birthplace of Lord Ram before Babri Masjid was erected during the medieval times. The judgment is likely to be delivered before November 17, by which time the present chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will be retiring.